A computing apparatus or device may be equipped with a means to authenticate a user for access. However, there may be applications or functions (herein referred to as apps) on the device that a user would access or use often but not wanting the need for device-level authentication every time he wishes to do so. On the other hand, some apps may provide their own authentication (optional or otherwise), so that a user may disable authentication for the device, and rely on such app-specific authentication. In this case, the user needs to be authenticated individually by these apps, and manage the credentials (e.g., user name and password) for all these apps.